Petrochimi seals second victory in Asian club tourney
Iran’s Petrochimi clinched its second consecutive victory at the 2017 FIBA Asia Champions Cup in China as the Iranian side demolished Thailand’s Mono Vampire 111-60 on Monday.
The result meant that Petrochimi, having routed Palestine’s Sareyyet Ramallah 108-45 on the preceding night, may still end up as Group A’s top team should the Iranians topple Chooks-to-go Philippines later today, fiba.com reported.
Mono Vampire gave the Iranians a strong challenge in the first quarter, but the ASEAN side just could not sustain its momentum, falling behind by 10 at the half and completely losing control in the last two periods.
Petrochimi’s size and ball movement were just hard to match. The Iranians outrebounded Mono Vampire, 48-24, and utilized far superior playmaking to gain more assists, 26-13.
It also did not help that the Thais turned the ball over way too many times – 25 to be exact – which let to 36 points off turnovers for Petrochimi.
Willie Warren led five Petrochmi players in double-figure scoring with 20 points, while Navid Niktash and Sajjad Mashayekhi each dropped 16 points.
Young big man Meysam Mirzaei also turned a lot of heads by notching 14 points, 15 rebounds and 3 steals. As for Mono Vampire, the Thai side drew a combined 23 points from Mike Singletary and Sorot Sunthonsiri but got next to nothing from Jason Brickman, who had only 3 points in under 17 minutes of action.